2010
Workshops
Isabelle St-Jean
Women Ushering in the Future: Embracing the Feminine Principle through Leadership Presence and Effectiveness
With a collective desire to create a better balance of masculine and feminine representation and values in workplaces and communities, women are called to lead from the essence of the feminine principle. Our natural propensities to be creative, relational, to care, to be introspective, and to see the interrelatedness in all things needs to be further integrated in the culture and in various areas of endeavors including politics and business. This feminine principle really matters now, at this crucial time in our fragmented and complex society.
Through this interactive presentation, Isabelle will inspire, inform and engage participants to reflect and shift into their next level of leadership. Together, we will examine, identify and move beyond what may still hold us back from more fully embracing our role as change agents. With practical tools in our collective hands we can better tap our resourcefulness as we embody the spirit of feminine leadership and help to usher in a more equitable and sustainable future.
Presentation content, dialogues and exercises will center on the following 5 focal points:
1. What are the inner and outer dynamics affecting women and their leadership in our culture now?
2. With multiple demands on our time and energies, how do we keep ourselves inspired and ignited to be lead change on the micro and/or macro levels?
3. What new habits, perspectives, behaviors or practices can we develop to further augment our capacity to lead in our spheres of influence?
4. Tools from neuro-science and principles from Aikido that guide us to better live in Flow and increase our quality of presence, focus and creativity for greater leadership effectiveness.
5. Identifying at least one change we intend to make or tool we want to use; connecting with another participant in the session as witness to that intention.
For more information on Isabelle St-Jean, please visit her website, Inspired Momentum.
Erica Pinsky
Speak Up: Speak Out
My intention in Speak Up: Speak Out is to empower women to express themselves respectfully, in the workplace as well as in their personal lives. The session looks at some of the reasons, both societal and personal, that influence our choice not to speak up, and offers practical advice to enable women to speak up with confidence to support ourselves.
Women perform nearly two thirds of the world’s work, yet receive less than 10% of the world’s income and own less than 1% of the world’s property. Canada slipped from 18th to 35th place in the world in terms of promoting gender equality in 2008, according to a United Nations poll. Canadian women still make 66 cents for every dollar a man makes.
Women are targeted in 75% of all cases of workplace bullying. Women still experience other types of workplace harassment, including sexual harassment, in greater number than do men. Why is that?
I believe it is because the cultural norm for women is that we don’t speak up. I see this all the time in my work. Our reluctance to have those difficult conversations, combined with a willingness to accept the status quo, are huge factors. It is easy to blame those in positions of power, the “establishment”, for our circumstances. We fail to recognize how fear often shapes our behaviour. We unknowingly allow ourselves to don the cloak of victimization.
Another issue which I examine in Speak Up Speak Out is the relationship between gender and power. As disturbing as the prevalence of women as targets may be, an even more disturbing statistic is that in 50% of incidences of workplace bullying, it is women targeting other women. We need to recognize this fact and start to talk about it.
A key message in Speak Up Speak out is that the way to stop disrespectful behaviour, as well as to achieve true equality for women, is to stand up for ourselves. We must learn to speak up and speak out, to find our voice and respectfully manifest our true power.
For more information on Erica Pinsky, please visit her website, Erica Pinksy Inc.
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